More blasts hit Ukrainian arms depot

Blasts are continuing at a major arms depot on fire in the North-East of Ukraine. In the town of Losovaya, a massive blaze has been raging at the facility which is packed with hundreds of tonnes of weapons.

On Thursday morning the fire had been contained but hot weather sparked more explosions. Several thousand residents have been evacuated and two servicemen were injured. Ukraine has declared a state of emergency.

The fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in a nearby forest before spreading to the storage facility, which contains around ninety-five thousand tons of weapons. It set off a series of explosions of artillery shells and other weapons.

It is the latest in a series of similar incidents at military ammunition depots in Ukraine.

On August 19, 2006 and May 18, 2007 fires broke out at military base А2985 in Novobogdanovka, leaving four injured.

On April 11, 2008 a blast occurred at rocket base 275 injuring three pyrotechnists.

However the last major fire – that led to population evacuated – occurred in Zaporozhskaya region on May 6, 2004.